


Can I tell you something just between you and me?

by voices_in_my_head



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, takes place several years after the finale, tattooed!Theo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:47:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27425938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voices_in_my_head/pseuds/voices_in_my_head
Summary: "“I like your tattoos,” he says.“Thanks, I like them too,” Theo replies and he has a soft smile on his face. The sight of it makes Scott’s heart squeeze in his chest; Theo never looks this unguarded during the day.He laughs, “I hope so, since they’ll be on you forever.”Theo looks at him for a few seconds in silence before replying. His eyes are looking more awake but he still has an open look about him; Scott knows that it doesn’t come that naturally to him, that he’s used to closing himself off, to controlling everything he puts out. The fact that Theo is choosing to be open with him makes his heart beat faster. “I like that. With the Doctors…” He frowns, “my body kept changing."
Relationships: Scott McCall/Theo Raeken
Comments: 6
Kudos: 30





	Can I tell you something just between you and me?

“What are you doing?” Theo mumbles, mouth muffled by his arm, which he has his head lying on. He’s on his stomach, naked, face turned to Scott, eyes sleepy.

Scott smiles at him, keeps tracing unknown shapes on Theo’s back. He can’t quite stop staring at him. This isn’t the first time they’ve slept together, but it also hasn’t happened so often that he doesn’t feel somewhat surprised that Theo doesn’t immediately get dressed and leave.

Scott leans forward to kiss him on a shoulder blade, which gets him an appreciate hum.

“I like your tattoos,” he says.

“Thanks, I like them too,” Theo replies and he has a soft smile on his face. The sight of it makes Scott’s heart squeeze in his chest; Theo never looks this unguarded during the day.

He laughs, “I hope so, since they’ll be on you forever.”

Theo looks at him for a few seconds in silence before replying. His eyes are looking more awake but he still has an open look about him; Scott knows that it doesn’t come that naturally to him, that he’s used to closing himself off, to controlling everything he puts out. The fact that Theo is choosing to be open with him makes his heart beat faster. “I like that. With the Doctors…” He frowns, “my body kept changing. They kept coming up with new formulas. My coyote shape… It wasn’t like that the first time I shifted.”

Scott doesn’t say anything, just keeps giving him his full attention. He knows that Theo doesn’t tell him these things for pity, but because he wants to share them.

“It was like it wasn’t fully mine, you know? But the tattoos… I chose them. And only I know what they mean.”

Scott knows that too; he’s heard Liam and some of the others ask about the meaning of one or another tattoo, but Theo never tells them what they’re about.

“But I’ll tell you. Just about one,” Theo says and Scott blinks at him.

“You don’t have to,” he immediately replies, certainly doesn’t want Theo to feel like he’s somewhat owed information.

“I want to.”

“Okay,” Scott replies, in a soft tone, and then once again turns to look at Theo’s body.

He has quotes in several languages, Spanish, French, German, then in Alphabets that Scott isn’t sure to which language they belong; maybe Russian, maybe not. Then there’s all the drawings too. Birds, flowers, some that are clearly interconnected, some that tell just one story. Either way, Theo’s body is a beautiful canvas.

Scott takes a few minutes to make his decision but really, there is one tattoo that he’s more curious than the others, one that he keeps seeing even when he closes his eyes. It’s on his right calf, taking up pretty much all the space, in tons of black and gray.

There are three men, one in the middle, big, and one on each side, smaller. There are two or three snakes enveloping them, though that’s not what catches Scott’s attention whenever he sees it. No, that would be the expression on the face of the man in the middle. He has curly hair, as well as a beard, and his mouth was caught half open, his empty eyes turned to the sky.

“This one,” Scott says, stretches so he can touch it.

“Really? I thought you’d choose something else.”

“I can, if you don’t want to tell me about it,” Scott immediately says.

“No, I don’t mind,” Theo puts a hand on Scott’s arm. “It’s a replica from a real sculpture, the Laocoon group. That’s the man in the middle and the other two are his sons. It’s from an episode in Virgil’s _Aenida_ ,” Theo pauses. “Laocoon was a Trojan priest and when the Greeks sent the wooden horse, he told his kinsmen that it was a trap. But the gods had already condemned the city so Athena sent two serpents to kill him and his sons. It’s a warning to Aeneas, which makes him leave the city in time, ending up in the italic peninsula, where Rome was later founded by his descendants.”

It’s an interesting story, if tragic. Scott wonders why Theo got it tattooed, but doesn’t ask, lets him tell it at his own pace. “As most old things, it’s not one hundred per cent sure who made it. And some people say it’s a copy, that the original was made in brass, though it didn’t reach us. This one was actually lost for a while; it was dug out around the 1500s, in Rome. It’s in the Vatican now.”

“Have you seen it?” Scott asks. Theo’s only been back in Beacon Hills for a few months; he could definitely have been to Italy in the meantime.

“Yeah. But I didn’t get it because of the actual story, but everything after,” Theo says and now he sounds excited. “You see, Horace came up with this saying, _up pictura poesis_ , which basically means _as is painting, so is poetry_. It’s kind of the idea that if something exists in both paper and physically, that they’re the same.”

“Like Laocoon being an episode in the book and a sculpture,” Scott says and Theo sends him a smile.

“Yes, exactly. And this idea was accepted for centuries. But then, this guy was like _no, they each have specific domains. One does what the other can’t_. And he focused on Laocoon because of the way he’s screaming. You see, Lessing defended that the sculptors could never have shown Laocoon’s pain at its peak because that would go against the maximum ideal of plastic art: beauty.”

Theo gives a little laugh and Scott can’t look away. “Obviously, his essay isn’t perfect; he basically used the book of another historian to build his basis on how everything there was wrong. And Lessing did kind of draw up his own conclusions, like when the sculpture was actually done, more to validate his points than because it was true.”

Scott takes a minute to think about that, Theo staring back, not judging at all. “So you got it because… It changed how people think of art and poetry?”

“I got it because… It’s not just a tragic episode. Once you start learning about it, there’s so much more. And most people… they probably don’t bother. They just see this sculpture; they don’t know how there’s so much more going on. And it’s what people think when they see it on my leg, right? They just see a tortured man. They don’t know the rest.”

Scott doesn’t say anything right away, just stares at Theo, who stares back. “Thank you for telling me.”

Theo smiles, bright, showing off his white teeth. Scott’s heart skips another beat but he doesn’t even try to control it.

“Thanks for listening.”

“I enjoyed learning about it, honestly. I didn’t know you were into art so much.”

Theo shrugs and his face does something, like he was going for a grimace but stopped it in the last second. “I didn’t use to. It wasn’t exactly something the Doctors found important. But that summer I spent in my truck… The library was a good place. And I didn’t want to read… Mysteries or biographies. So I just started reading about art and museums and there’s just so much behind it we don’t know.”

Scott gives him a smile, “you think you can tell me more of those stories?”

“Sure,” Theo smiles, “but only if you share your own.”

“Like what? The most I know is about being a veterinarian.”

Theo shrugs, which looks kind of weird with him still laying on his stomach, but he somehow makes it work. “Then tell me about that. Tell me about anything you want.”

Scott stares at him for a few seconds, can’t help but to hear Theo’s heartbeats, strong and slow, though sometimes with a slight jump. He leans forward to kiss him lightly on the lips.

“Okay,” he says and then starts a story.

**Author's Note:**

> I did learn about ut pictura poesis, Lessing, Laocoon, etc, for my masters, but it is not my area of expertise, so if anything's wrong, do let me know :)


End file.
